Prana Journalhttp://pranajournal.com
A yoga agnostic explores life, breath, spirit and beyond, one asana at a timeWed, 19 Apr 2017 18:38:43 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.313833035Another goof — this one lasting 10 days — but a bigger lapse hit this blog.http://pranajournal.com/update/another-goof-this-one-lasting-10-days-but-a-bigger-lapse-hit-this-blog/
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 19:42:51 +0000http://pranajournal.com/?p=6255Continue reading Another goof — this one lasting 10 days — but a bigger lapse hit this blog.→]]>On April 4, WordPress automatically updated my WP installation, and something broke. It was probably one of my plugins or the security settings that interfered, but the site stopped working. When I noticed the stoppage a few days ago, I could not even get into the admin panel. I had to remove all plugs and then get things back into working order. Since I have been ignoring this blog, there are a lot of tasks that have piled up.

Over the past 18 months, blogging has not been my top priority, to say the least. I have been making some of the most significant changes in my professional career, creative roadmap, personal mindset, and daily habits. I have had to focus on a narrow set of priorities to get through this transition. I have also had to pay a price by shortchanging activities that keep me grounded, focused and healthy, including slacking off on yoga and exercise.

I hope to write about this transition, but it will require some processing to get the right perspective and remove the extraneous details. I will keep you posted.

]]>6255Neglect and broken linkshttp://pranajournal.com/update/neglect-broken-links/
Thu, 15 Oct 2015 23:24:56 +0000http://pranajournal.com/?p=6007Continue reading Neglect and broken links→]]>I have not been monitoring this website and the number of bad links has bloomed to 45. So far tonight, I’ve corrected 10, but I can see that I really need to rewrite some content because some sites have disappeared from the Web, others have undergone technical changes (conversions to WordPress, mainly) and still others require greater research and explanation.
]]>6007Taking a step back from blogging and yogahttp://pranajournal.com/update/step-blogging-yoga/
Thu, 15 Oct 2015 21:52:35 +0000http://pranajournal.com/?p=5989Continue reading Taking a step back from blogging and yoga→]]>It’s been a while. I have not posted anything here for three months, the longest period I have ever gone without blogging since 2000 (before this blog started in 2004, I had another blog at Peruvian Graffiti). Moreover, I have not written anything substantive since last year, just a couple of quick shots from the hip and photos.

Why? The yoga scene has changed

When I took up yoga, pranayama and meditation, there was only archipelagos of content online across the Internet. I had my list of a handful of blogs, instructional sites, and, of course, Yoga Journal. Now there are abundant resources available on the Internet, from streaming classes to forums, so many that I have given up trying to track them. Any yoga instructor worth their salt has a branded blog, with an apparel line, DVDs and books. More importantly, regional portals are providing local coverage of the yoga community, and diverse special interest groups (Yoga Service Council and International Association of Yoga Therapists, to name just two) are coalescing around yoga issues.

Even in the early 2000s, the mainstream media rarely covered yoga and related stories so I found it helpful to draw attention to major news stories and commentary that showed the spread of yoga in American culture. I get Google alerts about yoga news stories everyday, and coverage ranges from quotidian (new studio opening on Main Street, park classes on Sunday) to PR (the fascination with yoga pants) to major (yoga macho Bikram Choudhury loses his copyright trial and the running suit about yoga in California public schools). We even read about how the Indian government and Hindu culture is reacting to the assimilation of yoga within American society. We even see yoga postures showing up in commercials and meditation getting billed as the latest productivity enhancement.

Yoga is moving beyond novelty and trendiness. Increasingly voices are coming forward to ask questions about broader issues, to interpret major challenges to how yoga is practiced in America (insert links here when I have time to dig them up).

Given these shifts over the past decade, I find it hard to register in my two cents in the blogosphere.

Why? I’ve changed

Last Friday, I took my first restorative class in three months. I’ve not taken a hatha class this year. That does not mean that I don’t practice yoga. I do everyday. I’ve intentionally down-throttled my practice from “trying-too-hard” to just trying to master one pose, savasana.

When I realized that I did not want to keep up a running commentary of yoga events in the news and elsewhere or try “big think” on yoga in America, I thought I could stay focused on my own practice, an aging, white male in search of the double whammy of physical exercise and mindfulness, with healing his subtle wounds as a bonus. But if my own practice is lying motionless on the floor, there’s not much to write home about. Of course, there’s a lot more going on under the skin, but that comes with its own risks.

I’ve also become more agnostic about yoga since about four years ago and even more so since I finished my yoga teacher training two years ago. Patanjali does not make easy sense for me; releasing the tension in my myofascial system does.

In a different vein, my wife dislikes that I reveal my inner life on the Web. I’ve become more aware of how the Internet gives unfiltered access to anyone who wants to search for dirt. I think twice before revealing my private thoughts. I’ve already written enough about my physical and mental health for a prospective employer to hesitate before hiring me. With a name like mine, though, I have a degree of deniability or security in numbers. But just knowing my LinkedIn or Facebook page would be enough to dig up my personal history or commentary about my former bosses or whatever.

Even making quick posts to Twitter or Facebook or Instagram makes me feel scattered all over the Internet.

So my original motives for blogging about yoga have faded, leaving me with the need to find another reason for writing. It’s going to require me to write my way forward.

]]>5989A couple of hours at NYC art gallerieshttp://pranajournal.com/update/couple-hours-nyc-art-galleries/
Mon, 29 Jun 2015 01:12:30 +0000http://pranajournal.com/?p=5959Continue reading A couple of hours at NYC art galleries→]]>I am just now getting around to processing all the photos I took on a trip to New York City last month. After riding a cruise around Manhattan, we walked over to the art district and were bowled over by the number of art galleries crammed into a block. It was late afternoon on Saturday so we did not see but a sampling of the exhibits available. Sorry, for the time being, I don’t have the names of the galleries or the artists. We barely had time to take a few pictures.
Click to view slideshow.
]]>5959Just breathe — it works!http://pranajournal.com/meditation/breathe-works/
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 20:32:59 +0000http://pranajournal.com/?p=5929

From the mouths of children… I was feeling rushed and harried this afternoon and then I saw this video. ‘Nuff said.